Vent 1st experience w/seat check was a joke

Our hospital has a stupid(IMO) policy that says that ALL carseats(including convertibles)need to be brought up to birth center after baby is born so that they can run the serial number and make sure there are no recalls and pretty much just make sure you HAVE a seat for baby. That's fine and good if you have a bucket, but we are using a Radian. There is no way that I was going to make hubs haul that sucker up 3 floors to have them look at it and then have him attempt to install it. Well intentioned as he may be, I think we all know that this seat has some serious quirks and I can't very well be doing it right after giving birth. Heck, I get a good workout installing them even when I am at 100%.

Anyway... that's not the point... in an effort to get around said policy, I fought the two Radians and Parkway into submission in our itty bitty car and scheduled a seat check appt today in order to get a signed letter from a tech that we have an appropriate seat that has not been recalled, is not expired, etc and is correctly installed.

So, I get there and the guy opens up the back door on the side where the Parkway is. It was unoccupied, but I had it buckled in. He almost acted like he'd never seen an unoccupied buckled in booster. He grabbed the shoulder belt and pulled on it and shook the PW a little bit. He looked around for a total of 8 more seconds, said, "yah, looks pretty good." Then he grabs the TOP of the RF Radian and gives it a little shake. "Yup, yup, everything looks good." Luckily, I was standing behind him so he couldn't see my jaw drop to the floor and my eyes roll as I looked at my mom(who came with me)and shook my head in disgust. Then, he spots the RF tether and sort of stoops down and pulls on it and says, "you know, that's not really necessary." I politely explained to him that this particular seat allows for a RF tether. "Oh, okay, well it sounds like you've read your manual and if you're following it, everything is good." I could just see my mom start to squirm, because she knows I'm a carseat freak and that I tend to be outspoken and opinianated. She was just waiting for me to go after him for passing this off as a seat check, but I just bit my tongue. He didn't even go around to the other side of the car to check the FF Radian. It could have been sitting there unbuckled and he wouldn't have known the difference.

I got my signed "tech" letter out of it, but seriously, what a JOKE! What if I had showed up with a horrendous installation!? If it were not for the tips I've received on this board, there is no way I would have just known by reading the manual how to get those stinking Radians in good and tight. Grrrr..... makes me want to hurry up and get certified all the more so there are more techs around here who actually give a rip.

Did you get his name & tech number? Might be worth reporting him to Safekids.

I had one of these last Saturday. I wanted new Child Id stickers since we got some new seats. He had my 5 yo buckle her self up and the tugged at the strap a bit. He gently tried to move the Regent's base. The he shook the top of the Como and had me put my 2 yo in. Gave the straps a quick tug and asked how old she was. I beat him tot the punch and told him I was aware she was technically old enough to go FF facing but she still fit rear. He did not check the seat belt, tethers or anything. No recall checks. Bah.

But I got my stickers and some spares since I like to trade out seats often

Farm_Mama said:

I could just see my mom start to squirm, because she knows I'm a carseat freak and that I tend to be outspoken and opinianated.

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Okay, that part had me lol. Seriously, though, I would report him. He didn't even check all 3 seats? What's with that?!

I do have his name/number from the letter he typed up for me. The only thing keeping me from reporting him is that he is one of my dad's employees. Dad is fire captain and this guy is a firefighter under him. If I report him, he'll likely know exactly who it was since not many people go to the FD to have their seats checked. I only went there and not to the local car dealership that does them because it was more convenient for us. I don't want to create tension between them, but I also want people to actually get a good check. I did tell my dad how it went so hopefully he'll say something to him. So frustrating!

Maybe he was nervous about checking "the boss's daughter's seats"? Can you mention it to your dad?

UlrikeDG said:

Maybe he was nervous about checking "the boss's daughter's seats"? Can you mention it to your dad?

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That could be. You'd think he'd want to do an extra good job though, not a halfway one. I did mention it to dad, so hopefully he'll talk to him. My dad wasn't working at the time, so it's not like he was standing there watching him or anything. It's tough because he's a SUPER nice guy, just maybe a not so great tech.

Wow. Unbelievable. You told your dad, so you reported him. Nice guy or not, if he's out endangering kids with lousy checks then he shouldn't be doing them.

Heck, I did a check today where the selection of the seat was correct, the harness was tight enough, AND it looked installed properly. The car shook. I STILL took it out and looked it over (brand new TF, so no concern of recall). I put it back in for her, but she had a perfect seat and I still removed it. The only seats I don't remove are ones that I know the parent can do properly because I've met with them before, or I'm checking the fourth seat of the day and the other three were just perfect as well and this is a repeat of the Marathon or something in the other car. And those are rare.

Glad you don't need to lug the seats out to the third floor. When Piper was born and the nurse said, "You can bring her seat in now" that Nathan and a friend had just spent 45 minutes installing I thought they were going to die. But she assumed we had a bucket seat and just walked outside with us to get Piper settled in the car.

Wendy

I'm sorry your experience was so bad.

I have issues with one hospital in my area making parents bring seats in. If they have a convertible and I have checked it, I do not want them to take it out and bring it in the hospital. Then they would just have to reinstall it. At one particular hospital and I went around and around with them before they agreed to parents bringing a copy of the check form in to prove they had a good seat.

Here we make the parents bring the seats in, but if they have a convertible we really don't need to physically have it in the hospital. Most of the nurses don't know that and insist they bring it in anyway. And with a convertible, I get to go stand outside in very cold temperatures with no coat and watch Dad try to install the seat, so I can pinch the straps on the baby and go back to work.

Farm_Mama said:

Our hospital has a stupid(IMO) policy that says that ALL carseats(including convertibles)need to be brought up to birth center after baby is born so that they can run the serial number and make sure there are no recalls and pretty much just make sure you HAVE a seat for baby.

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Really, I don't think it is a stupid policy. It could just use some tweaking. They are obviously trying to make sure the kids are safe. Most hospitals can't do seat checks due to liability, so this is the best they can do. Also, a lot of them aren't techs, so they can't really go out to your car to look it over for you. I do agree that it is a PITB if you are using a convertible. In that case I would think they could go out to your car and see it.

Our hospital has that policy and we didn't mind it much. But then, we have LATCH so our install on the baby's seat was a breeze. Not so much if we had to put it in with a seatbelt next to 2 other seats.

mish said:

Really, I don't think it is a stupid policy. It could just use some tweaking. They are obviously trying to make sure the kids are safe. Most hospitals can't do seat checks due to liability, so this is the best they can do. Also, a lot of them aren't techs, so they can't really go out to your car to look it over for you. I do agree that it is a PITB if you are using a convertible. In that case I would think they could go out to your car and see it.

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I admit, "stupid" was a bit strong. I was frustrated when I first posted. I think it's great that the hospital is making an effort to keep kids safe. It just seems like overkill to actually uninstall a seat to bring it up. The policy certainly needs tweaking. I am more than happy to write down serial number/DOM/etc for them but I won't drag it into the hospital.


Also, I have a bit of a new development and a question. I searched on SafeKids.org today and it doesn't seem like the "tech" who checked our seats is listed. Neither are any of the other techs that my dad said are certified at the FD. If they were in fact CPSTs wouldn't they come up in the listings??? Is there any other certification they could have besides through SafeKids?? I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps the city neglected to have the men keep up with their re-certs or something since they aren't showing up. I do have the one guy's tech #, but didn't know if there was a list I could check that against. Seems to me like this could create a HUGE liability for the city.

Each tech decides on their own whether or not to be listed on the Safe Kids site. So they may have opted out of it.

I asked when I was getting Nicholas ready to come home if they needed to see his seat or what---it was already in the room. They said they wanted to look at the straps to make sure they were tight enough, but they aren't allowed to touch it since they're not certified. I told them that I am a CPST...and they never checked him in his seat.

Susan

Farm_Mama said:

I admit, "stupid" was a bit strong. I was frustrated when I first posted. I think it's great that the hospital is making an effort to keep kids safe. It just seems like overkill to actually uninstall a seat to bring it up. The policy certainly needs tweaking. I am more than happy to write down serial number/DOM/etc for them but I won't drag it into the hospital.


Also, I have a bit of a new development and a question. I searched on SafeKids.org today and it doesn't seem like the "tech" who checked our seats is listed. Neither are any of the other techs that my dad said are certified at the FD. If they were in fact CPSTs wouldn't they come up in the listings??? Is there any other certification they could have besides through SafeKids?? I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps the city neglected to have the men keep up with their re-certs or something since they aren't showing up. I do have the one guy's tech #, but didn't know if there was a list I could check that against. Seems to me like this could create a HUGE liability for the city.

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If you PM me the tech's number I can check it.

safeinthecar said:

If you PM me the tech's number I can check it.

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PM'ed you. Thanks!

Farm_Mama said:

I do have his name/number from the letter he typed up for me. The only thing keeping me from reporting him is that he is one of my dad's employees. Dad is fire captain and this guy is a firefighter under him. If I report him, he'll likely know exactly who it was since not many people go to the FD to have their seats checked. I only went there and not to the local car dealership that does them because it was more convenient for us. I don't want to create tension between them, but I also want people to actually get a good check. I did tell my dad how it went so hopefully he'll say something to him. So frustrating!

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I agree with others that he could have been nervous about checking the boss's daughter's seats, but I think moreso that, since you know the captain and he can (because of his grandkids) understand why a caring tech is so important, talking to him and having him maybe give the guy a bit of a kick in the pants about being more detailed and into this part of his job may be more effective than reporting him.

But I'd let your dad know how to report him if it continues to be a problem that he gets complaints about.

mish said:

Really, I don't think it is a stupid policy. It could just use some tweaking. They are obviously trying to make sure the kids are safe. Most hospitals can't do seat checks due to liability, so this is the best they can do. Also, a lot of them aren't techs, so they can't really go out to your car to look it over for you. I do agree that it is a PITB if you are using a convertible. In that case I would think they could go out to your car and see it.

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I really think that it could use alot of tweaking. I CRINGE every time I watch the video that my husband taped of the nurse re-threading the harness on our Snugride so that the straps where over DS's shoulders because she said that was the way it was supposed to be. And this was after she took out the infant insert that came with the seat saying it was "illegal". I personally think that unless the nurse or hospital represenitive is a CPST they have no buisness with the car seats other than to verify that the parents has one. In all honesty, even if they deem it is unsatisfactory or is expired, whatever, they can not keep you from leaving the hospital with your infant. If a hospital is so concerned with car seat safety hire a tech and let him/her handle it. A CPST would know not to require a parent to un-install a convertible seat and bring it in for inspection. :twocents:

And to OP, I learned that all seat checks are not created equal when I went to get my Regent install checked when I first got it. None of them had ever seen a Regent and after taking it out, they had no idea how to get it back in. Uh, read the manual, lol. Luckily they where pretty receptive to me and I showed them how to do it while one was reading the manual as I was installing it to see that I was doing it correctly.

Our hospital DOES use techs. Of note they only check that the seat is not expired, that the baby fits correctly, no aftermarket products, etc., things that don't have to do with the install itself. They only check your install in the car if you ask.

ketchupqueen said:

Our hospital DOES use techs. Of note they only check that the seat is not expired, that the baby fits correctly, no aftermarket products, etc., things that don't have to do with the install itself. They only check your install in the car if you ask.

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See, I think that is great!